Weekly Jobless Claims Rise, Technical Issues Cited

WASHINGTON, Oct 18 (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose last week, reversing a sharp decline in the prior week but still pointing to a labor market that is slowly healing.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 46,000 to a seasonally adjusted 388,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

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The prior week's figure was revised up to show 3,000 more applications than previously reported to 342,000.

A Labor Department official said it appeared that state-level administrative issues were distorting the data.

The government adjusts its readings for claims to take into account regular seasonal swings. Claims usually increase at the beginning of a quarter, but one state appears to be following a different pattern than normal in reporting its claims, which led to the wild fluctuations over the last couple of weeks, the official said.

The official declined to name the state, although the Labor Department said that California was the only state in the week ending October 6 to report a decrease in claims of more than 1,000.

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I have been looking for Obama's plan. Looked in the closet, wasn't there. Listened to his speech's before adoring fans, wasn't there either. Just wondering if any of you have seen Obama's plan.

I know he told Medvedev of the Russia that he would have more flexibility after the election. Wonder what that was all about. Probably top secret stuff. It was off mike, Obama gaff not covered by the Obama media. I wonder if Obama will tell Romney his secret when he loses.

Now new letters fron Diplomat Stevens, saying the situation was getting seriously bad. CIA in Benghazi said 24 hours after the attack that is was a planned attack not a demonstration. All this went to the State Dept. This is always discussed at intel briefings. Well Obama didn't know since he didn't think it was important enough to attend, 46% of meetings attended. Is that called plausible deniability, that Barry is a shrewed dude.

Het did ya Biden yesterday, he wanted all the vet's from Iraq and Iran to stand up. hey Joe get with it. Ya just can't make this stuff up can you Joe.

We don't know what Romney's real plans are because he's promising something to everyone whom he thinks might vote for him. But he did endorse Paul Ryan's budget proposal and even selected Ryan as his running mate, so that should give us a clue. What Ryan proposed (perhaps somewhat modified now, or at least he says so) was slashing many government programs, especially those like Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, college loans, etc., while cutting the top tax rate and zeroing out such things as capital gains and estate taxes that primarily tax the rich. This would amount to a massive transfer of money from the 99 percent to the one percent but would do little to reduce the deficit. I suspect that behind that used-car-salesman smile on Romney's face lurks a heart of stone as far as the great majority of Americans is concerned. Didn't Romney even dismiss 47 percent of the American people as losers not worth his consideration?

I don't think Romney's advisers believe in the confidence fairy. I think they care about the economy only to the extent that they can exploit it for the benefit of the super-rich. Romney is the key to opening the floodgates, shutting down regulation, decimating the tax base, and allowing the richest of the rich to amass unheard of wealth at the expense of the 99 percent. Good, high-paying jobs for all qualified applicants who want them will be a thing of the past.

Billion dollar companies in the information age, like Facebook, require only a few thousand employees. The Henry Ford strategy of paying his employees enough so they could afford to buy the cars they were making is no longer necessary. Local laborers who had good jobs and good benefits can't compete with lower-cost foreign workers. This cheap labor market used to be unreachable, but now it's only an Internet hop away.

Jobs are changing, markets are changing, and a new, virulent form of conservatism is slouching toward Washington, waiting only for a like-minded leader to occupy the most powerful seat in the free world. And we're separated from this hideous dystopian future by a handful of uncommitted voters. As fairies go, I don't think Tinkerbell's going to be much help.

US went to the moon for the last 40 years and government and a state administrators can collect and report the number of unemployed weekly and monthly claims right to the American people .This is really stupid.

Your no speller. We were losing 810,000 jobs a month when Bush left office. We are adding 120,000 a month now. That is a net difference of almost a million jobs a month. Impressive. Romeny's plans is to repeat the failed Bush policies only worse because Bush started with a budget surplus and a good economy.

It seems like no matter who's in charge, we'll never get honest numbers. One week unemployment is down, the next week, jobless claims are up. Blah! blah! blah! I guess if you really want to know the truth ask the American people. The ones actually out there trying to survive on a daily basis why those who want our votes are attending $25,000 a plate fundraisers and trying to convince us that they feel our pain. They tell us that we have the power of the vote, so I say we just keep voting them OUT until they get the message that work has to be done or they will be one and done. Just because one can speak well and has a great smile and looks good on The View doesn't make him a great president. Just because one had success as a business man and looks good in a suit doesn't make him a great president. What makes a great president is intergrity in the sense that no matter how well they do their job they should know they work for the American people whether they're rich, poor, black, white, male, female, gay, straight and giving the hope that no matter who you are that if you work hard and believe in yourself and that we all work together good things can and will happen. That's the message a good president conveys. Not, "you didn't build that" or "47 percent are freeloaders".

What they are not telling is that these great jobs are mostly Walmart and retail business that are hiring part time labor for the holidays!! I just left Walmart a month ago and they were already on a hiring binge! However these so called jobs should not be even considered real jobs it is just over minimum wage and it is like 60% of walmart employee's even full time still have to have Government assistance!